PoW Camp 51 Allington

Allington Gardens Park – PreFab homes estate built on the site of former PoW Camp 51 Allington Camp

Location

Allington Gardens, Allington, Grantham NG32 2FL

Description

Last Site Visit

March 2020

Materials

DSLR and Drone Photos
UK FO Inspection Reports

This site is now a housing estate made up of prefabricated homes called Allington Gardens Park. It is evident that the park contains several older prefab units as well as several newer ones. In fact, some units are for sale as brand new and have recently been erected on the site and are for sale with signs up as well as internal plans on the sites notice board.

I met the Parks on-site manager who was able to tell me some of the history of the site. Post war the site was divided into two parts in that part of the site was used as a Pigg Site and the rest of the site was used for static caravans. Over the years the pig farm closed, and that part of the site was used for prefab houses and that he referred to the site as being new and old half. It appears that when used for caravans these were sited on the foundations of the older PoW Camp buildings. As the site has moved from static caravans to prefabs new bases have been laid.

The site history was evident in my walking around the site with the 1st thing I spotted was that the letterbox at the site office was marked as GR. This means it dates to King George VI who was the king from 1936 to 1952. Next, there were two exposed bases close to the site office, these were set at an angle and of a size and shape that was not consistent with that of the former WWII PreFab buildings. However, at another part of the site there was another base this time fenced in with safety fencing. This base included several bricks and it was evident that this was an older base. This was confirmed by the site manager who said that it was the site of the last static caravan and that it had recently been removed from the site and that a new base was due to be laid.


Camera and Drone Images of the site of the former PoW Camp 51 Allington and now Allington Gardens Park – PreFab homes estate


Extracts from UK Foreign Office Inspection Report from UK National Archives Kew:

FO 939/133 PoW Camp 51 Allington – Narrative Visit Reports